Introduction

This talk was given at St. Peter’s Church on 6 April 2025. Revd Mark Fletcher explores knowing Jesus personally through the parable of the ten virgins, emphasizing that spiritual preparedness cannot be borrowed from others. Personal spiritual disciplines and a deepening relationship with Christ are essential for sustaining faith through life’s wilderness seasons.

So a few years ago I was on a road trip in the United States and I was driving through the Mohave desert in Nevada. And you might know it’s a wild and beautiful landscape, but it’s really quite desolate and very sparsely populated. And I drove through a tiny town and there was a petrol station and it had a sign on it, and it said, last gas for 100 miles.

And I thought, gosh, that’s an interesting sign. And I carried on. So it turns out that a hundred miles is a lot further than you think it is. About an hour later in the middle of absolutely nowhere, my fuel light came on and I was nowhere near and it got quite serious and it was getting dark and the wind was blowing.

And as I went on, I started to notice abandoned cars. In the desert. And I got to the stage where I was doing those things that you do going into neutral for the downhill parts. And by the end I was literally running on fumes. And then in the darkness, in the distance, I caught the tiny glimpse of a petrol station, and I was saved.

And the moral of the story is: Don’t risk not filling up when you get the chance because you could end up in a very sticky situation. So we are approaching the climax of Matthew’s Gospel and you know that all the things that are to come in the next couple of weeks. But if you think back, if you’ve been with us, it’s been quite the journey right through from Christmas and the wonderful stories of the birth of Jesus.

And then through his baptism, his 40 days in the wilderness, his temptation, and then the beginning of his ministry and his remarkable teaching, the sermon on the mount and the miracles that go with it, and the vast crowds which gathered around him. And then the rejection of him by the religious authorities and the disciples’ gradual realization of his true identity.

And now the journey turns towards Jerusalem and towards the cross. And so in these final few chapters of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is preparing his disciples and he’s preparing us for what’s next. For life once he’s no longer with us. And so he tells this parable. Admittedly, a slightly complicated and unusual and uncomfortable parable, but I think it’s a really important one.

And so let’s reflect on this a little bit together. It is a parable about a wedding. And before we go any further, it’s well worth noting that Jesus often uses weddings as a picture of that which is to come. You know what we are looking forward to, our hope in Christ, isn’t simply heaven when you die, but is greater than that.

And the picture that he painted in the last chapter in Matthew 19 was the renewal of all things. The Bible ends with an amazing picture in Revelation 21. It speaks of a new heaven and a new earth, and he who is seated on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new. That what we look forward to, according to Jesus, is his kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.

And while I suspect we can hardly begin to imagine what that means, the picture that Jesus uses time and again, is of a wedding, which is a marvelous picture. There are few days more special, more full of joy and great people and friends and family and celebration. They are founded in promises of love and of faithfulness, and of the uniting, not just of two people, but of two families and two communities.

It is a picture of a profound new beginning. And that is what Jesus says it will be like when the kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven. Now you might know that weddings in the ancient world weren’t just one day. They would go on for many days and many nights. They were remarkable events. And this parable is a picture of the first night of celebrations.

And these young, unmarried women, virgin is simply a word for that, have this place of great privilege that they are to essentially perform a guard of honour for the arrival of the bridegroom, who is clearly very important. And so waiting for their big moment, dressed in their finest and carrying these oil lamps to illuminate the way, they wait.

The parable says five of them were foolish and five of them were wise. When you have an important job to do, preparation is everything. It’s worth thinking about every possible eventuality, to take wise counsel, to take responsibility for yourself. And surprise, surprise, the bridegroom is delayed.

Now as another aside, it’s worth remembering that clearly in this story, the bridegroom is Jesus and the wedding is the coming of the kingdom. And so there is this theme in much of Jesus’ teaching at this point that the wait for the coming of the kingdom is going to be far longer than you think it will be.

And in fact, that may be Jesus’ major point here. That the fulfillment of God’s promises is going to take a lot longer, and you need to be prepared for that. It is, as they say, a marathon and not a sprint. Why is it gonna take longer? Well, the early church really wrestled with this question. Peter, in one of his epistles said this: The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise. Instead, he is patient not wanting anyone to perish, but for everyone to come to repentance.

And so the reason it’s taking a long time for the kingdom to come is because the bridegroom has important work to do, and that work is in terms of the salvation of the whole world. That’s what’s happening now. The gospel is going to every corner of the world and people are responding to it. And so you and I are going to have to be patient.

And the waiting is important. As we wait with faith and with hope, we are a witness to the coming kingdom. Never think that the waiting doesn’t matter, that your quiet faithfulness in waiting is part of our calling. You like these 10 young women have a light to shine. You are a witness to what God is doing in the world. Don’t wander off. Don’t get distracted or think that this doesn’t matter. Be faithful as you wait.

Now, did you notice they all got drowsy and dozed off? I suspect lots of you can relate to that. I certainly can, but the consequence of that is that they don’t notice that their lights are burning low and suddenly at midnight the shout goes out: Here comes the bridegroom. Come out to meet him. And they wake with a jolt and they run around to get all of their stuff ready, and all of them realize that their lamps have run out of oil.

What’s the difference between the wise and the foolish ones? It’s not that they got drowsy or dozed off. They all did that. It’s not that their lights had burned low. The waiting is hard and it’s hard for everyone. There’s no avoiding the hardships and struggles of life and faith. But the difference between the two is that the wise had brought with them reserves of oil, and the others expected that they could be dependent on the resources of others.

But in the end, there are things that you cannot borrow. So here’s the story. I was ordained in the year 2000. And I went into my ministry with great kind of enthusiasm, wanting to be creative and do things in a new way. And after about nine or 10 years, I was absolutely running on fumes. I used all of the energy that I had and I was struggling just to get through, not just term by term, but week by week.

And I was genuinely worried that I couldn’t sustain the life of ministry. And so in a bit of a crisis, I started to read and talk to some wise people. And I got asked some fairly insightful questions. And what became really clear was that I had never really put into practice any of the stuff, particularly the stuff on prayer that I had been taught at college.

I paid lip service to the importance of it, and I certainly prayed in a kind of functional fashion, but I was like someone paddling on the shore and I’d never really learned to swim. I was still a beginner at prayer. Now that’s really typical of enthusiastic young ministers, but I think it’s also really typical of lots of us who think that action is more important than a sort of spiritual discipline.

And if I look now, I can see many sadly of my peers who never made it through. Who are no longer in ministry. And so there is this danger, I think, for all of us. If we don’t make the time, if we do not find a way to invest in the things that deepen and enrich our faith, then when the hard times come, when the long road through the wilderness comes, when the dark nights and the waiting happen, we will not have the resources to sustain ourselves.

And it’s a really tragic parable in many ways because look what happens to the foolish ones. They’d run off to get oil. It’s obviously the middle of the night. That’s not easy to do. And when they eventually came back, the party had long started and they bang on the door and the bridegroom answers and they say let us in and he says, I don’t know who you are.

It’s heartbreakingly awful. But do you see the warning? That what Jesus is saying is it’s not enough to simply know about God. It isn’t enough even to have an important job to do. That what we are called to do is to know God for ourselves and for that to be a relationship which deepens and flourishes.

Knowing Jesus for ourselves is the purpose of all of this. Jesus’ mission, the cross is there to reconcile us with God, to give us the chance of a relationship of our own with God. And knowing Jesus for yourself is not something that you can borrow. What these young women tell us is that if you don’t know Jesus for yourself you won’t be at the party.

And there is a real and present danger that our light flickers and grows dim and gradually goes out. Faith, like any relationship, is never static. It is either growing or it is fading. Neglect it, take it for granted, invest in everything else rather than this and that faith, which is the most precious thing, gradually flickers and dies.

Jesus says, therefore, keep watch. Be vigilant because you do not know the day or the hour. This life is a long road through a desert land. Be careful to take the time to stop and refuel along the way. The Good Shepherd will be with you and will lead you to the places that restore your soul. But take the time.

Don’t fail to fill up. Invest in the most important thing that you own, which is your faith. Invest in knowing Jesus. Be prepared. Be wise. Amen.